6/20/11

Jessica's Fantabulous Summer Reading List of Amazingness!

With a title like that you should all be expecting big, huge things! Well here it goes folks, my top 8 books for this summer!:

Storked
By Christine Coppa
"Warm, honest, funny, and empowering, Rattled! is an unforgettable memoir of a life that takes an unexpected turn—and a brave young woman who decides to follow where the road leads. Everything in twenty-six-year-old Christine’s life was going as planned—great friends, a promising job as a magazine assistant, New York City at her feet . . . even a cute guy. Until the fateful day she realizes she’s pregnant by said cute guy, whom she’d only been dating for a few months. The next thing you know, he bails and Christine is left to wonder, What now? Trading Manhattan for the suburbs, skinny jeans for sweatpants, and all-nighters with the girls for 3 a.m. feedings with a restless infant, Christine chooses to live a life that honors what’s important to her—and finds strength she didn’t know she had in the process."

This book was AMAZING, I didn't want to see Christine's journey come to an end and I was rooting for her and little JD the whole time. If you're looking for a feel good book that will inspire you to realize that sometimes things happen for a reason, pick up this one! I promise it will not disappoint!

Sisterhood Everlasting
By Ann Brashares
"From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ann Brashares comes the welcome return of the characters whose friendship became a touchstone for a generatìon. Now Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget have grown up, startìng theìr lìves on theìr own. And though the jeans they shared are long gone, the sisterhood is everlasting. Despìte havìng jobs and men that they love, each knows that somethìng ìs mìssìng: the closeness that once sustaìned them. Carmen ìs a successful actress ìn New York, engaged to be married, but mìsses her friends. Lena fìnds solace ìn her art, teachìng ìn Rhode island, but stìll thìnks of Kostos and the road she dìdn’t take. Brìdget lìves wìth her longtìme boyfriend, Erìc, ìn San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bìgger part can’t seem to shed her old restlessness.

Then Tìbby reaches out to brìdge the dìstance, sendìng the others plane tìckets for a reunìon that they all breathlessly awaìt. And ìndeed, ìt wìll change theìr lìves forever—but ìn ways that none of them could ever have expected."

Ok...deep breath here, I am currently reading this book and I am a bag of emotions. If you've been a sisterhood follower since the beginning like myself, you MUST read this book. Its certainly not happy, its sometimes depressing, but its about life and life is not always happy, it can be very depressing and its about the relationships that help you through these times. I will be corny enough to say that these girls feel like my friends sometimes, Ann Brashares has a knack for a deep character depth, that sense of familiarity makes the book that much more powerful. If you're a fan and even if you're not, I urge you to pick up this book!

Skipping A Beat
By Sarah Pekkanen

"What would you do if your husband wanted to rewrite the rules of your relationship?
Julia Dunhill, a thirty-something party planner, seems to have it all: Married to her high school sweetheart and living in a gorgeous home in Washington D.C., she imagines her future unfolding very much as it has for the past few years, since she and her husband Michael successfully launched their companies. There will be dinner parties to attend, operas to dress up for, and weddings and benefits to organize for her growing list of clients.  There will be shopping sprees with her best friend, Isabelle, and inevitably those last five pounds to shed.  In her darker moments, she worries that her marriage has dissolved from a true partnership into a façade, but she convinces herself it’s due to the intensity of their careers and fast-paced lifestyle.
So as she arranges the molten chocolate cupcakes for the annual Opera benefit, how can she know that her carefully-constructed world is about to fall apart? That her husband will stand up from the head of the table in his company’s boardroom, open his mouth to speak, and crash to the carpeted floor… all in the amount of time it will take her to walk across a ballroom floor just a few miles away. Four minutes and eight seconds after his cardiac arrest, a portable defibrillator jump-starts Michael’s heart. But in those lost minutes he becomes a different man, with an altered perspective on the rarified life they’ve been living and a determination to regain the true intimacy they once shared.  Now it is up to Julia to decide — is it worth upending her comfortable world to try to find her way back to the husband she once adored, or should she walk away from this new Michael, who truthfully became a stranger to her long before his change of heart?"

I finished this book about 2 weeks ago, I finished it in 2 days because I could not tear myself away! Being an event planner myself I really associated with Julia's feelings. The book reinforces the old age rule, money does not equal happiness. I feel in love with Julia and Michael's journey and you will too! This is a book that will keep you flipping the pages wanting to see a happy outcome. While the ending is not what you expect its certainly powerful.

Lies That Chelsea Handler Told Me
By Chelsea's Victims
"My tendency to make up stories and lie compulsively for the sake of my own amusement takes up a good portion of my day and provides me with a peace of mind not easily attainable in this economic climate."--Chelsea Handler, from Chapter 10 of Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang
"It's no lie: Chelsea Handler loves to smoke out "dumbassness," the condition people suffer from that allows them to fall prey to her brand of complete and utter nonsense. Friends, family, co-workers--they've all been tricked by Chelsea into believing stories of total foolishness and into behaving like total fools. Luckily, they've lived to tell the tales and, for the very first time, write about them."

Being that Chelsea is my hero, I pre ordered this baby. I've read all of her other books and even got them signed....that's a story for another day. This book is laugh out loud funny, the shenanigan's that this comedic Goddess gets up to are just ridiculous. This book will inspire the jokster in all of you. I guarantee at least a couple of laughs, but if you're anything like me...don't read this book in public, the only thing funnier than the pranks she pulled would be my expression while reading it.

The Help
By Kathryn Stockett
"Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't."

I read this book over the winter, but seriously, if you haven't picked it up, run out and do so NOW. This book is fantastic. The characters are created in such a way you long to continue hearing their stories months after you've put the book down. What an empowering journey these women go through. This is going to be a blockbuster hit this summer, coming to the big screen in early August, but I am urging you to read the book first, Kathryn Stockett is a genius and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next!

If You Were Here
By Jennifer Lancaster
"Told in the uproariously entertaining voice readers have come to expect from Jen Lancaster, If You Were Here follows Amish-zombie-teen- romance author Mia and her husband Mac (and their pets) through the alternately frustrating, exciting, terrifying-but always funny-process of buying and renovating their first home in the Chicago suburbs that John hughes's movies made famous. Along their harrowing renovation journey, Mia and Mac get caught up in various wars with the homeowners' association, meet some less-than-friendly neighbors, and are joined by a hilarious cast of supporting characters, including a celebutard ex- landlady. As they struggle to adapt to their new surroundings- with Mac taking on the renovations himself- Mia and Mac will discover if their marriage is strong enough to survive months of DIY renovations."

Jen Lancaster, I have 3 words for you, I LOVE YOU. Honestly, you are hilarious. This is Jen's first foray into the world of fiction, up until this point she has written 4 laugh out loud memoirs about everyday things that happen in her crazy life. This book is awesome, she proves she can rule the memoir and fiction world! Its a great summer read, especially if, like me, you're looking to become a new home owner soon!

The Lost Girls
By Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett & Amanda Pressner
"Three friends at a crossroads in their twenties make a pact to quit their high pressure New York media jobs; leave their friends, boyfriends and everything familiar behind; and embark on a year-long backpacking adventure around the world."

Ok, this is on my must read list, it sounds like such an amazing adventure and really, I'd be lying if I said this didn't cross my mind from time to time. This is what life is about, not necessarily the perfect job, the quinessential family and the house in the burbs. Its about experience, love and relationships!

Last Night At Chateau Marmont
By Lauren Weisberger
"Brooke loved reading the dishy celebrity gossip rag Last Night. That is, until her marriage became a weekly headline.
Brooke was drawn to the soulful, enigmatic Julian Alter the very first time she heard him perform “Hallelujah” at a dark East Village dive bar.
Now five years married, Brooke balances two jobs—as a nutritionist at NYU Hospital and as a consultant to an Upper East Side girls’ school, where privilege gone wrong and disordered eating run rampant—in order to help support her husband’s dream of making it in the music world.
Things are looking up when after years of playing Manhattan clubs and toiling as an A&R intern, Julian finally gets signed by Sony. Although no one’s promising that the album will ever hit the airwaves, Julian is still dedicated to logging in long hours in the recording studio. All that changes after Julian is asked to perform on the Tonight show with Jay Leno—and is catapulted to stardom, literally overnight. Amazing opportunities begin popping up almost daily—a new designer wardrobe, a tour with Maroon Five, even a Grammy performance.
At first the newfound fame is fun—who wouldn’t want
to stay at the Chateau Marmont or visit the set of one of television’s hottest shows? Yet it seems that Brooke’s sweet husband—the man who can’t handle hot showers and wears socks to bed—is increasingly absent, even on those rare nights they’re home together. When rumors about Brooke and Julian swirl in the tabloid magazines, she begins to question the truth of her marriage and is forced to finally come to term with what she thinks she wants—and what she actually needs."

Alright, this is also one of my must reads, I just picked it up yesterday and cannot wait to dive in! The Devil Wears Prada is one of my favorite books (and movies! Meryl Streep is God!) Lauren Weisberger has a talent for making a juicy summer beach read, take it from a girl that's read all of her books thus far. She's in a category with heavy hitters such as Emily Giffen, Sophie Kinsella, Cecilia Ahern and Jennifer Weiner!

Alright fellow readers that's all for now, I hope you enjoyed my list and I hope you'll pick up some of these great books and get out in the sunshine!


 

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